The margin of error for the Jets is gone.

The Lions beat the Jets 20-17 on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, handing them their third straight loss and dealing their playoff hopes a critical blow.

“The sense of urgency is definitely high,” Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said. “We’re not idiots. We understand the way things shake out as far as the playoff standings and different things like that. We understand that these three games are extremely crucial going forward, but we’ve got to worry about one at a time.”

The Jets are 7-7 with three games left, starting with a visit Thursday night from a red-hot Jaguars team. It feels like now the Jets’ only hope of ending their 11-season playoff drought is to win these final three games and hope a few other things break their way.

On Sunday, there was plenty of blame to go around — from the defense allowing the game-losing score with two minutes left to play to Zach Wilson disappearing for a long stretch in the middle of the game to some questionable time management by coach Robert Saleh to the punt team allowing second return for touchdown in a month.

“To close people out, it’s hard,” Saleh said. “They’re not just going to lay down for you. But we had our opportunities all game, and we missed it.”

If the Jets do miss the playoffs, they will look back on Sunday and a fourth-and-1 with two minutes left, in particular, as a moment where their season slipped away.

The Jets took a 17-13 lead with 4:41 left in the game after Wilson threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah, their second touchdown connection of the game.

The Lions (7-7) got the ball back with 4:37 left at their own 22. The Jets’ defense had done a solid job all day against Jared Goff and a Lions offense that entered the game averaging 26.2 points per game. The Jets had held them to two field goals.

But Goff moved the ball to the Lions’ 49 and had a fourth-and-1 coming out of the two-minute warning. Goff ran a play-action fake to Justin Jackson and tight end Brock Wright slipped out to the left side and was wide open for Goff to throw to. Wright then took it up the Lions sideline and into the end zone for a 51-yard touchdown.

“It felt like we played really good the whole game,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said. “It sucks really bad that one play changed the whole game. That’s how it works.”

No one would say after the game who was supposed to cover Wright, but it appears that either safety Jordan Whitehead or linebacker Quincy Williams should have stayed with him, but both acted like it was a run play after Wright initially blocked.

“We’re all devastated,” cornerback D.J. Reed said. “As a defense, we put that on us because we want to be in those situations.”

The Jets got the ball back with 1:49 left to play at their own 25 and three timeouts left. Wilson connected with Garrett Wilson for gains of 22 and 10 yards, but Saleh did not use a timeout until there was 19 seconds left. The Jets let 20 seconds tick away after Wilson’s 10-yard grab with 50 seconds left.

Zach Wilson ended up completing a fourth-and-18 desperation throw to Elijah Moore and Saleh used his second timeout with one second remaining. Greg Zuerlein had to try a 58-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left.

If Saleh had used a timeout earlier, the Jets likely would have had more time to run another play and get closer.

Instead, the Jets lost and now are staring at must-win games the rest of the way.

“Everyone knows that we’ve got to win out,” Saleh said.

Saleh was not prepared to say who will start at quarterback on Thursday, but the expectation is Wilson will likely start again as Mike White deals with broken ribs.

Wilson had some good moments in his first game after three on the bench. He completed passes of 50 yards, 40 yards and two of 33 each. He threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Uzomah that tied the game at 7-7 in the second quarter. But he also missed some critical throws and had a terrible interception on the first possession of the third quarter that led to a Lions field goal that gave them a 13-10 lead.

“In that moment of going out there and throwing a bad interception, I gave up three points, I put our defense in a bad situation there and you see how those three points come back to bite us in the end,” Wilson said.

Wilson ended up 18 of 35 for 317 yards with two touchdowns and the interception.

The defense started out the game with a goal-line stand. The Jets took over at their own 2 but went three-and-out. Braden Mann had to punt with his feet at the back of the end zone and booted a line drive that former Jet Kalif Raymond returned 47 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Detroit lead.

Wilson led the Jets to a game-tying field goal just before halftime to make it 10-10. He had some beautiful deep throws and nearly led the team to a comeback win with the 1-yard touchdown pass to Uzomah late in the fourth quarter to give the Jets the lead.

Then came fourth-and-1 and a play members of the Jets’ defense will be replaying in their heads for a long while.

“They got us,” Mosley said. “It’s a very, very tough pill to swallow. At the end of the day, to win games in the NFL and to be successful and to be relevant and all those things, we have to execute on all levels. At the end of the day, that’s what we didn’t do.”